1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a method of controlling the image forming apparatus, a computer program product, and an image forming system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses have been used, such as a scanner that reads an image of an original, a copier that prints an image of an original read by a scanner, a printer and a facsimile machine that print an image of an original input from an external apparatus, and a so-called multifunction peripheral (MFP) having functions of the above devices. In these image forming apparatuses, when execution of image forming operation is to be instructed, it is necessary to perform various function settings, for example, a setting related to the state of an original such as a type or density of the original, a setting related to various image processing such as an enlargement/reduction ratio, a one-sided/two-sided setting, or a margin size, and a setting related to finishing processing such as sorting, stapling, or punching. Therefore, when instructing the execution of image forming operation in these image forming apparatuses, a user needs to perform operation of selecting a desired function setting item from a list of the enormous number of function setting items, which is laborious.
To cope with the situation as described above, in recent years, there has been proposed an image forming apparatus that can register a desired function setting item in advance. In such an image forming apparatus, a user selects a desired function setting item from a list of pre-registered function setting items, checks the contents of the selected function setting item, and then instructs the image forming apparatus to execute image forming operation according to the selected function setting item. With such an image forming apparatus, because it is not necessary for the user to search for a desired function setting item from the list of the enormous number of function setting items contained in the image forming apparatus, the user's labor can be reduced (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3696916 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-222941).
However, according to the conventional image forming apparatus, even when the user has registered only a single function setting item, the user is required to perform operation of selecting the function setting item that the user has registered by searching through a list of function setting items including function setting items registered by other users. That is, in the conventional image forming apparatus, even when the user has registered only a single function setting item, the user is not allowed to instruct the image forming apparatus to execute the image forming operation according to a desired function setting item unless the user performs the operation of selecting the function setting item from the list and checking the contents of the selected function setting item. Therefore, with the conventional image forming apparatus, it is sometimes difficult to reduce the user's labor.